Saint Paul, MN Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Sec. 01 declares any vehicle found in violation of a city ordinance or state law a nuisance that may be summarily abated by towing it to the public pound, and it adds two Saint Paul specific triggers. During a snow emergency or winter parking restriction declared under Chapter 161, the director of public works, working with the chief of police, may order tagged vehicles removed and impounded. Separately, subsection (c) authorizes impound where the vehicle or its owner carries three or more parking or traffic citations that have gone into warrant or are more than sixty days old.

That warrant based tow comes with its own protection: subsection (d) gives the owner an informal hearing before the traffic violations bureau, which must be requested within fifteen days of the tow and held within two working days of the request, and which decides only whether the tow, the impoundment and the associated fees were valid. It does not adjudicate the underlying tickets. Sec. 06 is the drop fee rule, and it turns on the wheels. If the owner or operator reaches the vehicle after it has been tagged but before it has been hooked to the tow truck and the wheels hoisted from the ground, the operator must release it with no fee at all.

Once the wheels are up, the operator may collect a service fee that cannot exceed the amount agreed in the current city contract, and must hand over a receipt for it. Notice runs on two clocks under Sec. 03: seven calendar days after an ordinary impound, by mail to the address shown in the records of the commissioner of public safety or by publication in a legal newspaper in the city, but only two business days when the tow was made under the three citation rule.

Sec. 01(b) adds a choice most impound chapters omit. Where a vehicle is too damaged to drive and is obstructing the street, the owner or operator may direct that it be towed to a garage of their own choosing instead of the public pound, unless the police department considers possession necessary to prosecute someone. Booting is regulated separately in Chapter 383, and that is where Saint Paul does fix a number: Sec. 07 caps the vehicle immobilization service fee at seventy five percent of the fee charged for a tow by the city impound facility, plus any commercial parking lot fees due, bars every other charge as a condition of removing the boot, and requires the licensee to honor all forms of payment currently accepted by the city impound facility.

00 in the Sec. 18 fee schedule, and Sec. 00 for property damage. Towing from private property is otherwise a matter of Minn. 051 and the wrecker license chapter, not of Chapter 162.